This evening I was joined for a “S.K.I.F.F.” fishing trip by Aiden Guyer (age 5), Aaron Casper (age 14), and special guest Manuel Pena from the Austin Fly Fishers (age withheld!).
Aiden caught the first fish of his life tonight!!
Aaron, who has fished with me before and who I trust, did a great job as a mentor to Aiden.
SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service (examples: field time, gunnery, NTC, deployment, etc). These trips are funded by the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.!
Aiden is the son of Chief Warrant Officer (CW3) Keegan Guyer and his wife, Danielle. Aiden is nearly 6 years old and is a Kindergartener at Haynes Elementary School in Killeen, TX. CW3 Guyer has been deployed twice to Iraq and is currently deployed to Afghanistan. He is part of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, but is attached to the Third Armored Corps (III Corps). Mrs. Guyer heard of the SKIFF program through her neighbor, Mrs. Marquez, whose son recently participated in a SKIFF outing.
Aaron is the son of the late Major Mike Casper and Mrs. Susie Casper. Mike, a former Army Kiowa helicopter pilot passed away while on active duty. Aaron attends Memorial Christian Academy in Killeen, TX, and served as a wonderful mentor to Aiden today. I specifically asked him to come along to give me an extra set of eyes and ears to help make sure Aiden had a successful, safe trip.
With pre-frontal south winds blowing and thick, grey cloud cover in place, the fish were very active this afternoon on Stillhouse. We started off shooting for “instant gratification” (typically necessary to keep younger kids’ attention) by downrigging, and we scored well, boating singles, doubles, and 2 triples over the course of our time on station. As we downrigged, we happened into some heavily schooled fish at or near bottom and it was apparent to me that we could score on these fish by setting up over top of them and working lures through them vertically. We used TNT180s and ‘blasters to capitalize on these fish and more than doubled our downrigging tally of 14 at the time, taking our tally up to 29 before moving on.
At this point, we did a snack break, snapped a few photos, then geared up to go sunfishing to keep the variety and engaging activities coming Aiden’s way.
We fished two hydrilla beds for sunfish and did well at each, boating an additional 20 sunfish — both bluegills and longears — on a slipfloat rig with Gulp! bait.
By now our count stood at 49 fish, so, I asked Aiden if he was up for heading out after the big ones again (meaning downrigging for white bass) so we could get to the 50 fish mark. He gave us the thumbs-up and off we went. We actually landed 4 more fish — all white bass — and finished out our day with 53 fish.
Aaron and Manual did a great job of helping Aiden as I handled the boat and kept my nose buried in the sonar.
For all you who support SKIFF, I want to pass on Mrs. Guyer’s sincere thanks for allowing her son this opportunity. She chose to attend this trip with him, as he’s only 5 and she wasn’t sure how he’d do without her. She found the trip very peaceful and relaxing, and said this was only the second “date” she and Aiden had to themselves without Aiden’s 2 year old brother coming along, since her husband left for Afghanistan. She took a bunch of photos and even a few video clips to remember the trip by.
TALLY = 53 FISH, all caught and released
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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:
Start Time: 3:50p
End Time: 7:45p
Air Temp: 88F at trip’s start.
Water Surface Temp: 81.1F
Wind: Winds were SSE11-13.
Skies: Totally greyed over with occasional light rain.
Areas Fished:
**1246/1240 downrigging & smoking with blasters and TNT180’s for first 2 hours
**Sunfishing at 1098 & 1256 for 1 hour
**Downrigging at 453/668/671 UTC
**
Bob Maindelle
Holding the Line Guide Service
254-368-7411
www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Salado, Texas